How can parents do this?

I'm not sure how old they are.

But who knows what they have endured themselves and then as adults may well go on to act similarly.

Forsythia

I wonder what has become of her own four children? No mention of any of them. If she gets out will she get them back?

I hope that she gets a long enough sentence that they will be adults by the time she gets out, Forsythia.

I wonder what has become of her own four children? No mention of any of them. If she gets out will she get them back?

My original answer was deleted - probably too graphic for some sensitive soul to read.

I'd like to think that when this evil pair gets sent to prison (probably for nowhere near long enough), that other. equally evil inmates will inflict some terrible injuries on them, on a daily basis. They should live the rest of their days in absolute terror, dreading the next attack on them.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Thank you for making that point Madgran77

As a teacher, I worked in social deprived areas and in two schools there were occasions when we worked with Social Services. On one occasion, the head made a call one morning to SS and a child was taken away immediately from the family home. SS had to have support from the Police to do this. The head, with a Teaching Assistant, had visited the home that morning. What he saw resulted in that call. We had growing concerns about the mother.

I'd find it too distressing to watch the video. Reading about it, is upsetting enough.

I have worked extensively with Social Workers over the years. They have a very difficult job.

I know of many very successful cases, where working with families and children, they have been kept together, and been supported appropriately. The Social Workers have balanced it all just right! Those ones don't tend to get in the news!

I am also aware of some times when the thresholds for action were frighteningly high and what seemed to be considered acceptable was worryingly wide ranging! Those cases only get in the news when the worst happens!

I think it very important to remember that we tend to only hear about the very serious, sad and very very shocking failures.

Reading the story of Arthur was very upsetting indeed and brought back memories of past cases, sadly.

Kate1949

I have read before about abused children going on to be abused. I know some do but I could never get my head around it.
I don't know if my childhood experiences would be classed as abuse but I think they were. It was so horrendous that I couldn't envisage treating a child with anything but love and kindness.

I think some children learn the best way to be loved by a abusive parent is to act like them. If there is a scapegoat child in the family, they will also bully the scapegoat and defend the parent. I suppose this breaks something in some of these children and they then perpetuate that behaviour with their own scapegoats one day.

Scapegoats are much more likely to be the ones who don't accept the parents behaviour and rebel against it. Their better nature's is why they are chosen to scapegoat and abuse in the first place. They must be silenced and prevented from making the family look bad.

I do not know how people can do anýthing like this, but I do know how they get away with it!

On various occasions when, as a teacher, I have suspected something has been seriously wrong in a pupil's home, I have been told, quite rudely, not to intefere both by head teachers and others.

If you go to the police and they too treat you as an interfering busybody, you do tend to give up, unless you can find something that is indisputable proof that a child is being ill-treated.

Perhaps we need to find a way to act on our suspicions, although I can well see that that could lead to false accusations that would be damaging in themselves to the children we would like to help.

Yes indeed Calistemon they used to carry out investigations, and when I first started as a social worker I remember going out with them. They wore uniform as and were known by families as ‘the cruelty man’. Those days are long gone and they do more therapeutic work now. They pass all child protection referrals on to Children’s Services which can be very frustrating because often they haven’t asked the right questions or got all the information that’s needed. People phone them as they have more trust in them than in Children's Services but sadly it often means information is simply passed through another filter and important details can be lost.

nightowl

That was my advice to my children Galaxy, for the same reasons. They didn’t really need the advice because they saw the effects of the job on both their parents close up.

I did work with PSWs, nightowl and started training myself but could not continue for family reasons, never continued with it afterwards as I know how harrowing it can be.
At that time the NSPCC seemed to have more powers but their ethos has changed now, I think..

Sorry that should read 'going on to be abusers'.

I have read before about abused children going on to be abused. I know some do but I could never get my head around it.
I don't know if my childhood experiences would be classed as abuse but I think they were. It was so horrendous that I couldn't envisage treating a child with anything but love and kindness.

Remember Maria Colwell, her broken and battered body put in the old pram they used to put coal in. I was 12 when she died in 1973 and I remember it being said 'this must never happen again'.

How many times has it happened since and how many times will it happen again. Society is failing these children and the least the law can do is lock up the perpetrators for life.

That was my advice to my children Galaxy, for the same reasons. They didn’t really need the advice because they saw the effects of the job on both their parents close up.

I have spent 30 years working with vulnerable families alongside social workers, doing an almost impossible job. There is absolutely no way I would advise my children for example to go into social work partly because of the utter contempt with which they are treated by the public.

Kate1949

BlueSky The father was abusing the child too.

Forsythia, see Kate1949's post above

Sadly this little boy didn't stand a chance.
His only saviours would have been his grandmother and other family who were not allowed to see him.

I don’t think she was abusing her own children according to reports, just this little boy. Where was the dad ?

My dd works for local govt and during the lockdowns was responsible for managing things like free school meals, key worker/at risk school places and support for vulnerable people. She worked closely with the SW dept and they managed to have almost all their at risk children in school, where they could be seen and any problems hopefully spotted.

They were later criticised by Holyrood for having ‘too many’ of the at risk children in school. You really couldn’t make it up.

A lot of parents /people who abuse children were abused themselves - not all, but quite a few I’d imagine.
They never got help so the cycle is never broken. I’m not making excuses for them but just answering the question as to ‘why do people do this’ ?

BlueSky The father was abusing the child too.

We know a friend of a friend, who got his first girlfriend pregnant in late teens, the lad stood by her& they had baby, were bringing it up ok, the dad taking most responsibility, but was a good dad, then his girlfriend cheated on him with a down& out psycho- who badly treated the toddler and she let him, apparently- poor little child died aged 16mths yet the poor childs dad had offered to take his child to live with him & his family full time, so if they couldn't be bothered with the poor mite she could have just let him have the toddler and he loved that baby so much and was a very good young dad.Its such a tragedy.They lived near us so we knew them too..Id see them on the bus sometimes, when the parents were still a couple and they were a happy little family.Such a shock, and a shame.The toddlers dad was heartbroken.The mother & her new psycho boyfriend were jailed for 10 years.But it won't bring back the poor child will it.

Callistemmon don’t worry, I’m not offended, I just feel a need to stand up for social workers. Thank goodness I’m at the end of my career, no longer in frontline child protection but in a job I love. I still have nightmares about my job and I remember all too well the fear of getting it wrong and being the one whose name is on the front page of the tabloids (remember ‘the most hated woman in Britain’ -not the person who murdered the child but the social worker). But most of all I remember the cases where I did get it wrong, and I remember the faces of the children I failed, and sometimes, the others where I think I helped. No one else can make us feel as bad as we feel about ourselves when things go wrong and children suffer.

I didn’t realise the ‘mother’ was in fact the ‘stepmother’, I didn’t read the article as too harrowing. Not that would remotely justify it. Was the father there? Was he taking part in the abuse? As I said deal with them as they treated that poor innocent child. No punishment is fit for this kind of crime.